“Hi, myself Mr. XYZ Surname.”
This is how we are told to start a conversation with a stranger. This is what we are taught at home. But do you think it’s a good way to start? No, it is not. As soon as we tell our surname, along with our name to the other person, we are judged, categorized and discriminated.
Right from the day, we are born, we are told that the world is divided into various categories, at various levels, and in various ways.
- First Level: We are divided by the country
- Second Level: We are categorized by religion
- Third Level: We are segregated by caste and subcaste, and the list is endless.
But have you ever thought why are we all divided, when we are all humans? We have the same human form, similar human body, alike families, and common earth - why are we supposed to form groups? Why not one nation, one faith, one religion?
Throughout our lives, we are chased by this question. We all keep ignoring and neglecting it. Many of us don’t know the solution for the eradication of discrimination from this globe.
Gaurav, the founder of ‘Human I Am’ organization, found out a unique way to end this discrimination known as ‘Donate Your Surname’.
It was 5 years ago when Gaurav replaced his surname with Human and launched this evergreen campaign called ‘Donate Your Surname.’ It became viral over social media, motivating many to drop their Surnames or add Human in place of their surname.
Gaurav Human’s initiative and campaign were praised and supported by the youth in large numbers. With the success of this campaign, he laid the foundation of ‘Human I Am’ NGO with the motto, ‘Humanity Is My Religion’.
Gaurav Human’s Life
Gaurav belongs to a high caste family, but this discrimination thing always kept haunting him. He wanted to end it but was never able to figure out where to start.
He tried many ways to end it - protested against it, educated people about it, but nothing stood on his expectations. And failures happen. The best part about him was that he never gave up on it.
Gaurav believed that humans are not made to be scared of other humans or be killed by some other human. He always had a feeling that someday or the other, everyone will start understanding the concept.
Donate Your Surname Campaign
It was on the 9th of March 2014, when a dream disrupted Gaurav’s mind and heart. The dream gave him a hint to end this discrimination, categorisation, and segregation among people.
Without thinking much, he woke up. Unconsciously, yet quickly, he opened his desktop and started writing a post on Facebook. In the post, he asked people to ‘Donate Their Surname’ while introducing themselves to others.
Gaurav wrote in that post asking everyone not to tell anyone their last name instead use Human in place of it. Moreover, he added that he is not asking everyone to change it in their legal documents or profiles even, but when they meet or greet anyone in general, use “Human” as their surname and not their caste as their last name.
Sounds stupid? But, no one had an idea of how big it was going to be. It was 1:30 am when Gaurav started this initiative via Facebook, by removing his surname from his Facebook profile, before making the post. (And since that day, he has not used his surname anywhere, except in legal documents.)
Gaurav had no idea that when he’ll wake up, his post would have convinced many into changing their Facebook profile names & replacing their Surnames with ‘Human’.
‘Donate Your Surname’ Popularity
Gaurav Human started promoting this campaign in the schools of his hometown, Lucknow. He did this by offering a self-defense workshop, in which he trained school students free of cost.
He knew that children are the future of tomorrow. If they understand, they will make their parents understand. If they understand, they will make their kids understand. If they understand, they will make their friends understand.
Thus, it was the best way to spread the message in multiple directions and grow its reach exponentially. And it took very less time to become popular among the dwellers of Lucknow.
Kalki Art Of Self Defense
Gaurav Human believes that Buddha wasn’t Buddhist, Jesus wasn't Christian, Mohammad wasn't Muslim, instead, they were all humans. Their religion was love, compassion, and humanity.
It’s Gaurav Human’s dream to see a borderless world. A world, where there’s no soldier killing the other, their’s no hatred, no terrorism, no negative vibes, no fear of being bombed in the next second. A world, where there is just love and peace all around.
In order to achieve this, Gaurav Human founded ‘Kalki Art of Self Defence’, where one can learn self-defence. His mission through this is to train each and every woman with reality-based self-defense combat art. This will help in creating a safe and secure environment for females - empowering them truly.
By now, thousands of people have accepted that even they want to see a borderless world. They have joined Gaurav and donated their surname, forming the Human race.
Support This Social Worker In His Mission
All Gods came but no one could change the world, so how can we? All we can do is to change ourselves. The day we start doing this, that day the world will start changing.
It’s not a single day task, it will take years, or maybe centuries, but someone someday needs to start. Why not today? Why not now? Why not you? Why not us?
To all those who are convinced with ‘Donate Your Surname’ campaign, remember these words by Gaurav Human, “Don’t Change Your Surname For Fashion, Change It For Passion”.
It’s not the social media where it’s necessary to be changed, it’s the mind where it should be. The change should come from within and reflect on everything you do.